Improvements in XRF specimen preparation using the dried residue method: Gallium in plutonium metal

Abstract

Preparing dry specimens from liquid samples for XRF analysis avoids introducing caustic or hazardous liquids into the instrument. Several modifications were made to a dried residue specimen preparation method for quantifying gallium in plutonium metal in order to improve the method accuracy and precision. Ion exchange chromatography was utilized to remove the plutonium prior to casting the dried residue specimens. This, coupled with several other changes, improved the method relative error from ∼5% to less than 1%. These results are sufficient for routine sample analysis and are almost comparable to results from the established process using liquid specimens. However, the analysis of radioactive liquid specimens is unnecessary for quantifying the plutonium gallium content using this dried residue approach